TUESDAY PDB – South China Sea: Philippines resupplies Spratlys shoal troops. Manila says Beijing’s attempts to “block, harass, and interfere with the supply mission” were unsuccessful. Chinese ships fired water cannons at a Philippine supply mission to the Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed Spratly Islands two weeks before, stopping it from reaching the Filipino troops. (RELATED: China Cutting Off US And Allies From ‘Critical’ Rare Minerals)
Australian Amphib HMAS Canberra in the Philippines for Drills Amidst South China Sea Tensions. The warship launched several MV-22B Ospreys in an air assault exercise off Palawan this week, commencing the first phase of the first-ever bilateral amphibious drill between the Philippines and Australia.
The Australian big-deck amphibious warship departed for the Philippines after the latest incident in the South China Sea.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here’s a roundup of today’s other top defense stories from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.
Not the President’s Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL’S DAILY BRIEFING – the PDB:
PENTAGON WOKE WATCH
Woke Pentagon spending at center of upcoming government shutdown fight. Risk of a government shutdown this fall is rising after a powerful bloc of House conservatives vowed to oppose any stopgap spending measure that does not roll back Pentagon policies they consider “woke.”
NO TAXPAYER-FUNDED SEX CHANGE OPERATIONS AND LIFELONG TREATMENT – Banning gender affirming care impacts service members and families. Conservative lawmakers are trying to turn back the clock, when it’s clear most Americans, and troops themselves, support transgender troops.
FOCUS ON TEACHING NOT WOKENESS! – Gender-neutral dress code welcomes students returning to Defense Department schools. Students at DoD schools on U.S. military bases overseas started the school year Monday with a new, gender-neutral dress code. (RELATED: Global Company Immortalizes Gender-Affirming Surgery With Cartoon Artwork)
NATIONAL SECURITY
CAN’T GET TO LONG-TERM IF WE LOSE A WAR SHORT-TERM – Adm. Franchetti, Biden’s pick for CNO, should focus on the short game. A new service chief is often expected to set out a long-term vision for their force that will guide spending and activity over the next several years.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
Windows are shattered in a Moscow suburb as Russia says it thwarts latest Ukraine drone attack. The falling wreckage of one drone damaged vehicles in Moscow’s western suburbs.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy thanks Danes in person for F-16s. Denmark and the Netherlands announced that they will provide Kyiv with F-16 warplanes as early as the end of the year.
Greece to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jet fighters. The Greek offer comes after Denmark and the Netherlands announced they would supply F-16s.
Ukraine’s needs-must approach won’t cut it with F-16 training. Ukrainians have proved ultra-quick and adaptive learners with new weapons, but training pilots for F-16s needs serious time.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 545. Ukraine said fighting in the northeastern Kharkiv region was “difficult” but that the country’s armed forces were repelling Russian attacks and had retaken several square kilometers on the eastern front over the past week.
How Ukraine is exploiting Biden’s cluster bomb gamble. The widely banned munition is wreaking havoc on Russian infantry but concerns about unexploded ordnance remain.
Dueling tours for influence as Ukraine war scrambles alliances. As Volodymyr Zelensky went on a diplomatic blitz of Europe, a top Iranian general made his way to Moscow. (RELATED: Russia To Build Thousands Of Iranian Drones To Swarm Ukraine)
IRAN THREAT
Despite talk, no evidence Marines have been placed on commercial vessels in Persian Gulf. Ever since reports that the Pentagon was considering putting Marines on commercial vessels to thwart Iranian influence in the Persian Gulf, questions and speculation have swirled around the topic.
HOMELAND SECURITY
Threats against public officials on the rise as 2024 nears. Threats against law enforcement and military – including judges and prosecutors – were the most common among public officials, but recently the targets have spanned multiple political offices including in the White House.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
B-2 flies through the Arctic Circle going from Iceland to Alaska and back. An Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber flew deep into the Arctic Circle on Aug. 15 on its way from Iceland to Alaska to participate in the training exercise Red Flag-Alaska 23-3.
Russian jets playing chicken with US planes over Syria. Air Forces Central Command reports head-on passes; denies Russian state-run media reports U.S. is doing it, too.
US citizens urged to leave Belarus immediately. Team Biden is urging U.S. citizens in Belarus to depart the country and warned against travel there.
Saudi forces killed hundreds of Ethiopians at Yemen border. The Ethiopian migrants were attempting to illegally cross the country’s border with Yemen. Saudi troops shot people at close range and fired explosives at groups in the mountains in what could amount to crimes against humanity.
Algeria refuses French overflight for Niger military operation. This, after a July 26 coup in the West African nation that lies south of the Algerian border. (RELATED: Despite Death of Its Leader in Syria, ISIS Still Threatens Asia, Middle East and Africa)
Netherlands buys counter-drone defense from Israel’s Elbit Systems. The company will supply a multilayered counter-drone system in a deal worth $55 million.
Poland gets green light to buy Apache helicopters. The State Department has cleared a sale of 96 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters worth about $12 billion.
Aussies boost long-range strike with $1.7 AUD buy of 200 Tomahawks, 60 AARGM-ERs. One of the first decisions of Australia’s Labor government after the Defense Strategic Review was to also allocate $4.1 billion for long-range strike and missile manufacturing over the next four years.
BIDEN’S AFGHAN DISASTER
UN says over 200 former Afghan military, officials killed since Taliban takeover. The former military, law enforcement and government have been killed since the Taliban took over, despite a “general amnesty” for old enemies.
Nearly two years later, Afghan allies still left hoping for help. Advocates worry that Congress may never pass reforms needed to help Afghan allies safely escape the Taliban and resettle in America.
US MILITARY
Manned Marine helicopter refuels unmanned helo for 1st time. The hefty Super Stallion transferred approximately 700 pounds of fuel to the Fire Scout.
Women in Army SOF resorted to buying their own armor, study finds. Nearly half of the women in U.S. Army Special Operations Command reported problems with the way their gear fits and some have resorted to buying their own.
MEN WANT TO PROTECT WOMEN – Women in Army SOF sidelined by ‘benevolent sexism,’ study finds. Those are some of the key findings from an internal study by U.S. Army Special Operations Command on barriers to service for women in the ranks.
END of PDB
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
READ NEXT: Federal Court Smacks Down Democrat Plan For Mail-Order Abortions
I certainly hope the Democrats are happy with themselves considering the fact they have weakened our Country to the point where other countries are having to protect our allies.
I am so sick of the Obama/Biden Terrorist factor and something needs to be done about this before it is too late for all of us. I cannot believe that one loser faction, Marxist Democrats has had this much of a destructive influence in such a short period of time.
GOP is naive. Do they really think they will win the election? With so many FBI, CIA and mafia clans of Clintons and Bi dens being prosecuted? Why do you think they are already labelling any opposition as terrorist? They may even cancel election on the pretext of civil war initiated by those “terrorist groups as enemies” of US democracy voting for president Trump, including moms against porno, in our K12 schools. Check how it was done by communists countries with enemies of socialism, branding and dividing population before election. Identical tacticks to usurp power.
Time to unite Pacific forces against China